Entitlement programs should be based on need, says Oklahoma rep. James Lankford

Republican congressman James Lankford of Oklahoma wants to abolish unemployment benefits for millionaires, reportsPolitico. He's sponsored a bill, described as mostly "symbolic" because it's unlikely to pass, that would that remove unemployment insurance eligibility for those belonging to the upper echelons of the income bracket.

"We need to think of all our entitlement programs to think about whether it's based on need," said Lankford, who said his targeting of the wealthy in this case "sets a principle more than anything else."

Upwards of $60 million was spent on unemployment benefits for millionaires between 2009 and 2010, Politico notes, while also pointing to the tax code's peculiar complexity that apparently makes legislation such as Lankford's difficult to implement.

Lankford's move represents the Republican party's latching onto a broad-based resentment of the so-called "one percent," claimed political analysts Marin Cogan and Manu Raju in 2011, when the the congressman first made his proposal:

"These measures show a tinge of populism creeping into Republican rhetoric, and an acknowledgment that constant Democratic attacks over income inequality may be having an impact."

Wake up stupid.... Unemployment benefits are not an Entitlement program. The people paid their hard earned money into that program and they want their money if their job goes regardless of what they have. They paid, it is their money.

Want to save some money I can tell you how. Pay the politicians by the hour and have them punch in when they are in the office and when they leave punch out. The pay scale should be minimum wage. Because everyone of you guys are filthy rich anyway.

Make serving the country, as a politician the job instead of the vast amounts of money they make for almost nothing. Also when you leave the job, the insurance and money stops. We cannot afford to pay ex senators that won't work. You retire, you live off your savings like the rest of us.

If everyone simply received the amount they paid in, it would not be an entitlement program, and the gov't would not have a debt incurred by unemployment payouts... Unemployment is an insurance program... your premiums are subsidized by the gov't, therefore it is an entitlement program... and considering that the gov't has extended unemployment benefits beyond what a person is actually entitled to based on their employment history, it has become a form of welfare in many cases.

"Wake up stupid.... Unemployment benefits are not an Entitlement program. The people paid their hard earned money into that program and they want their money if their job goes regardless of what they have. They paid, it is their money." Umm, no they did not. Unemployment insurance is paid by employers, not employees. And another benefit of being self employed? You get to pay double the FICA and medicare rate that employees get to pay.

The one that gets me is when you see unio contractor you know to be laid off, out running around with ladders and tools bidding jobs below scale while collecting unemployment. These are some real principled union members.

@tomincali - We gotta stop thinking that DC should do anything at all concerning jobs... This is something that can only be fixed properly through private commerce... every gov't job is a burden on the taxpayer... As long as we keep running to Nanny Fed, we will remain economically crippled.

when you boss pays into this account that is what it is for. better way would be clean out the country of all who have no legal right to be here and it will help those who are unemployed.as it stand not doing so it creating poverty among our own citizens

Any Conservative who thinks that one person deserves something over another because of how much money they do or don't have, is a RINO and should change their party to something more befitting of a Progressive

Unemployment is paid into while you work and paid out when you no longer have your job. I have a better idea. Remove government from unemployment and replace it with a mandatory savings/insurance account. I'm sick of government mismanaging these types of funds.

The problem is that the concept of discriminating against classes of people on any basis is wrong. In general the 'millionaires' have probably paid into the program over longer period of time. Unemployment Insurance is in place of lost wages. The maximum payment is fairly small, especially compared to a 'millionaires' likely salary.

Here I go again disagreeing with a Republican. You personally claim I never do so, you're wrong and here's proof of my non-partisan centrist viewpoints. I see it like this, if a millionaire has to pay into a system, he should be able to benefit from that system. If he can't benefit from it, he shouldn't have to pay into it. It's just that simple.

That sounds nice on the surface, but it could be applied to any benefit. I don't think I should have to pay taxes that go to the school district because I do not have children so I will never use the system. I do not benefit from the local school system so I should not have to pay into it right?

Paying into the unemployment system, like paying into the school system is a benefit to society. I may not like the impact on my personal budget, but its better than uneducated children and unemployed neighbors.